Friday, 2 July 2010

From time to time one comes across a café or restaurant that makes you sit up and take notice for one reason or another. I had one of these moments during a recent trip to Adelaide. I was googling restaurant and café options in the city when I came across Eggless. The concept intrigued me, and I knew I'd have to pay it a visit. I was curious about this place because I know there are so many people out there who don't eat eggs out of preference or due to allergy. Eggless also had a great range of vegan desserts - great for people looking for dairy free dessert.

I headed to Eggless Dessert Café late last Sunday night, and luckily got a seat inside straight away (good thing too - it was very cold outside!). A friend and I wanted to sample a few of the eggless creations on offer, so we ordered the tasting plate for two ($18) with four small portions of desserts from the menu.

Tasting Plate for Two $18

We ate our way from one end of the plate to the other.. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it! :P We started with the ice cream.

Sweetcorn Ice Cream

I was doubtful as to how the ice cream would be creamy without eggs or dairy, but it was quite creamy. It was quite light, and was lightly flavoured with the sweet corn and coconut milk/cream (not sure which). Delicious and refreshing on the palate.

Lychee and Passionfruit Pana Cotta

This was a wonderfully refreshing and flavoursome dessert. I can imagine it would be wonderful on a hot summer evening. The pana cotta was a bit runny to be a pana cotta but it was gelatine free after all.

Sticky date and raspberry pudding

I'm not normally one for anything with dates, but this dessert was great. Delicious and moist with a warm pouring sauce.

Blackforest tiramisu

So good, and my friend's dessert highlight for the evening. Yum :)

After dessert I asked owner and dessert creator Eelin a couple of questions...

Tell me a little about the concept behind Eggless

My parents were lacto-vegetarians (now vegan) and we've had a lot of trouble looking for desserts they could eat whenever we go out. So we then make our own food and desserts and have been doing that for many many years. I am also very passionate about desserts and understand how difficult for people with dietary restrictions to find decent desserts so we thought that it would be nice to be able to provide a place for people to have nice desserts.

You have a wide range of desserts on your menu. What's your personal favourite?

That's a really hard question...I do love lots of desserts but so far the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie is my favourite...can't really go wrong with the chocolate and peanut butter combination...it's also decadently rich but so lip smacking delicious!! It appeared a couple of times on our menu and it's also very popular with our customers.

So what's the secret? How do you create egg-free desserts without compromising on flavour or quality?

Lots of trial and error really...it's about knowing the ingredients and what they can do. I spend my spare time reading food magazines and recipe books for ideas and tips. I also try to use natural and fresh ingredients in my food to give the best flavours.

Do you have any tips for people wanting to create eggless desserts at home?

The internet is a fantastic source of heaps and heaps of egg free dessert recipes and has lots of good tips too.

9 comments:

This is great! I am fortunate to not have an intolerance to any food items. I can't imagine a world without cakes and sweets. It is good to know that there are options out there for people so they don't have to miss out on the sweeter things in life. It's also good to hear that the quality and flavour of these desserts are not compromised.

Interesting idea to base a whole cafe on the eggless concept. Its not an uncommon idea though in India, since eggs are considered 'non-veg' there. I personally find eggless desserts to be slightly less rich than the conventional ones...but my vegan friends would be delighted with this one!!

Mikey and I loooove Eggless! We were there again on Friday night, but unfortunately there were so many people we couldnt be bothered waiting for a table so just had takeaway. From now we will deffinately try to get there closer to 8!I was so excited when I found this place a few months ago and we have been going a couple of times a month since. I also had the sweetcorn icecream (but with banana cake) and thought it was a really interesting idea, lovely and creamy. And another time I had the raspberry date pudding which was lovely and soft, but very sweet.The staff are so lovely also, Eelin's partner Ken (I think) always makes an effort to have a chat and remember familiar faces. Thanks for doing this post :) fabulous to read what others think about my favourite cafe!

About Me

Welcome to the Diary of a Ladybird.
My name is Anna I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I am a mum to two little people and run my own small business creating bespoke cakes. This blog is a journal of my culinary explorations - recipes, places to eat, and a profile of my cake work as well as other things that inspire me as a food blogger, home cook and cake decorator :)
To contact me, email diaryofaladybird@gmail.com